Every year, roughly 600,000 people in the UK must navigate the bureaucratic maze that follows a death—notifying officials, closing accounts, managing probate—and 61% of bereaved adults say they struggled to cope with it. This matters because academic research has focused almost entirely on emotional support after a loss, leaving the practical, administrative burden largely unexamined. Yet these tasks can add significant distress to an already vulnerable state, and the pilot study suggests that unequal access to resources—money, digital literacy, or even the legal right to act—can create or deepen social inequalities that remain hidden. If this research succeeds, it will produce the first detailed qualitative analysis of how death administration processes reinforce inequality. Working with the National Bereavement Service, the Department for Work and Pensions, and other stakeholders, the team aims to streamline procedures across public and private organisations, reduce the administrative burden on the bereaved, and produce policy recommendations that improve mental health and wellbeing outcomes for people across the UK.
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Approximately 600,000 people die each year in the UK (ONS, 2021). The term ‘death administration’ is used to describe the tasks that must be completed after someone dies, such as notifying officials, dispersing belongings, and managing probate (including property sales, asset management, and inheritance distribution). In 2022 the UK Commission on Bereavement found that 61% of adult respondents struggled to deal with these time-consuming and time-sensitive administrative responsibilities, yet the toll of this remains largely invisible with academic literature tending to focus its analysis on emotional support in the aftermath of bereavement. Such oversight belies how structural inequalities, as research has shown, exist in certain bureaucratic procedures, leading to the existence of issues such as funeral poverty. Beyond funerals there are other significant forms of latent inequality, embedded across wider death administration processes, that have yet to be recognised or explored. For example, to what extent do bereaved individuals have equal access to the (material, social and emotional) resources needed to complete essential administrative tasks (from making bereavement support claims to closing bank accounts)? How are individual experiences affected by unequal levels of technological access and digital literacy? Who is expected and allowed to complete death administration tasks according to state and corporate policy, and how do these restrictions impact upon the experiences of those bereaved? Death administration processes can add significant distress to people in an already vulnerable emotional state and have the potential to reinforce as well as create new forms of social inequality. It is imperative therefore that this subject receives further academic investigation. Building on findings from the PL’s pilot study, the proposed project uses an innovative methodology to produce a pioneering qualitative analysis of the relationship between death administration and under-recognised forms of inequality. In doing so, we will create a step-change in how we think about and research inequality, emphasising how lesser recognised manifestations of inequality can significantly impact people’s lives and experiences in the context of death, dying and bereavement. Working in collaboration with a range of external organisations over the three-year project (including formal research partner the National Bereavement Service) as well as state departments, and corporate and charitable stakeholders (including the Department for Work and Pensions, Octopus Legacy, and Cruse Bereavement Care), we aim to establish the extent to which death administration processes create or reinforce experiences of inequality, and outline recommendations for ways to improve current policy and practice. By working with these stakeholders, we aim to streamline death administration procedures across public and private organisations, improve knowledge of systems and requirements, and help reduce the substantial administrative burden placed on those bereaved. Application of information gathered will be developed in discussion with a range of relevant stakeholders, as we collaboratively aim to improve the mental health and wellbeing of bereaved people across the UK. Objectives Use policy mapping to produce a detailed and accessible understanding of current death administration requirements and processes. Informed by the empirical work in objective 1, use qualitative research methods, including interviews and open-ended surveys, to produce a detailed and accessible analysis of the hidden inequalities inherent within, and caused by, death administration. Drawing on the outputs generated by objective 1 and 2, create new frameworks for policy and practice that support better mental health and wellbeing outcomes for those bereaved.
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